The 11th International Conference on Transfer Factor, organized by the University of Nuevo Leon and professors Rayes Tamez Guerra and Cristina Rodrigez Padilla, was held in Monterrey, Mexico, March 1-4. The field has dwindled from its glorious days in the 1970s, due to the rejection of the concept of transfer of antigen-specific information to uncommitted lymphocytes using a structurally unidentified low-molecular-weight cell extract. But clinical research continues in several parts of the worl

Today's biomedical science oscillates between rigorous approaches, with rational attitudes, and irrationality or incoherence. Thus, in the era of molecular biology, psychoanalysis thrives and represents a multimillion-dollar annual business, whereas other such "nonmaterialistic" disciplines as homeopathy, acupuncture, or hypnosis are a priori and uncritically rejected by hard science. Indeed, the temptation is to reject anything without a molecular explanation--better to deny a fact than get m

Further to the letter by H.H. Fudenberg appearing in The Scientist of Feb. 17, 1997 [page 13], we would like to point out that, although we agree with his overall contention regarding the beneficial effects of transfer factor even on advanced-stage AIDS patients, our polymerase chain reaction (PCR) data, albeit limited, do not confirm his equally limited observations, suggesting a dramatic drop in the PCR counts. In our experience, only one out of three patients showed an important decrease in